Friday, June 20, 2008

1970's "Heroes Convention Special" Flashback: E-Man

Joe Staton is one of the many fine guests who will be in attendance at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina beginning today and continuing throughout the weekend. Here is a look at one of the coolest heroes to appear in the disco decade of the 1970's, and despite his short-lived first series, this "guy" has popped up on the roster of several comics publisher over the years:

E-Man was created by writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton for Charlton Comics E-Man #1 in October 1973. The original series only lasted for ten issues, but the character has become a cult classic due to it's light-hearted humor, which is similar in style to the golden age Plastic Man.

E-Man is a sentient energy blob which was thrown off by a nova. Traveling throughout the galaxy "E-Man" learned how to duplicate the appearance of life, and about the concept of good and evil. Upon reaching Earth, he met exotic dancer/grad student Katrinka Colchnzski, who also billed herself as Nova Kane, and he physically transformed himself into a superhero called E-Man, with a requisite civilian identity that he dubbed "Alec Tronn". For an emblem he chose the famous mass-energy equivalence formula "E=mc2". His powers include firing energy blasts from his hands, changing his appearance, and transforming all or part of his body into anything he can envision; such as turning his feet into jet engines in order to fly.

Nova was eventually caught in a nuclear explosion and gained similar powers as E-Man to become his partner; although she would later lose her powers and return to being a normal human again. During their earliest adventures they adopted a pet koala named Teddy Q, whose intelligence grew to the point where he held a job waiting tables in a cafe.

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How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!